


Finding Family

by Panime101



Category: Original Work
Genre: Daemons, Dead Parents, Random Humans - Freeform, Reunions, lost and found sibling, orphaned children
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-06
Updated: 2021-02-06
Packaged: 2021-03-17 23:28:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,850
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29233785
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Panime101/pseuds/Panime101
Summary: When their village is raided by a horde of Daemons and their youngest sibling goes missing in the chaos, Heart leads her two younger brothers in search of them; but what they find may be more than they were expecting.
Comments: 2
Kudos: 1





	Finding Family

**Author's Note:**

> This is a story that I came up with in grade two for a writing competition, and I wrote it with my classmates' input for the character personalities. I rewrote it in 2019 for a creative writing course, so this is essentially the re-mastered version of my story from grade two. I hope you enjoy! Critiques are welcome.

Heart laughed as she and her siblings ran from the Human children.

“Catch us if you can~” she hollered over her shoulder as they finally reached the tallest tree in the village and started climbing.

Heart was eight years old when they first came to this village. It wasn’t a very big one, just fifteen log houses each with their own hearth, a village well, and a small fruit and veggie garden shared by the villagers. That was twenty years ago, and ever since then, they’ve caused nothing but mischief for the Humans. Now she is twelve. Her brother Spade is ten, Club is nine, and Diamond is the youngest at five. Over the years Heart noticed that they aged much slower than Humans, both in mind and body.

Some of their favourite forms of mischief were stealing toys from children, stealing the pies or breads that the adults put out to cool — and keeping families up at night with their creepy giggling, and cheerful laughter. They were aware that some of the adults pitied them for being orphans, but all this did was bring more misfortune to their families at the hands of the Daemon children.

Today, a day like any other, Heart and her three siblings stole some toys from the Human children again and ran to the tree where they usually taunted them with the toys and their card suit tails. All the Human children could see of them was their tails and red eyes. After a few minutes of this it began to grow dark as a black, writhing mass descended upon the village from the Western sky. Heart saw the Humans in the village start to panic. Parents grabbed their children, and everyone shut themselves inside. It was too late for Heart and her siblings to run and hide – the abandoned shack they called home was on the other side of the village. They’d never make it in time. Their only choice was to stay where they were, in the tree.

She cursed. “Spade, Club, Diamond, come here! We have to stay still and keep quiet, okay,” she said, stretching out her leathery wings to surround them.

“What’s going on?” asked Club.

“Heart, I’m scared,” Diamond whimpered.

“Hush you two, she told us to be quiet,” whispered Spade.

“I’m not sure what’s happening, but the Humans are scared, and I have a bad feeling about that black mass in the sky,” Heart said, peeking over her wings to peer out through the foliage.

A couple minutes later, the mass reached the village, revealing its identity to be a horde of Daemons. There was an uncountable number of them, so from a distance they looked like a solid mass, and up close they blocked out the sky.

Heart had never seen another Daemon other than her parents and siblings — she didn’t dwell too much on the ache in her heart at the thought of her parents. She didn’t know what to do. She was scared. She didn’t want to lose any more family.

The air trembled with the screams of Humans and the cackling of the Daemon horde, as they tore into houses and emerged with loot: jewelry, food, clothes, books, livestock, Humans — they took anything of value to them. Two of the Daemons started fighting over the goods, right underneath the siblings’ tree, and one of the Daemons was knocked back into it by the other one, yelling, “Get your filthy claws off my stuff, old man!”

The impact shook the tree, hard, and jostled the orphans, causing Heart to lose her grip on Diamond, who fell to the ground with a thud. But she didn’t notice until the Daemon under the tree spoke up.

“Huh? What’s this, another Daemon? And a child at that,” the ‘old man’ said.

She whipped her head around to look at them, eyes wide as she saw the Daemon reach for Diamond, who was lying unconscious.

_“No, Diamond!”_ her mind screamed. She wanted to rush to his aid, to keep him away from the other’s sharp claws, but she couldn’t do so without endangering her two other brothers, who were now shaking and whimpering, on the verge crying like she was. They all watched with horror as their youngest sibling was taken away, carried by the Daemon like a potato sack as he flew away with the rest of the horde.

\------------

Three days.

That’s how long it had been since the village raid. Since the orphans were chased from the village and into the dark pine forest, believed to be the cause of the horde’s appearance. How long it had been since Diamond was kidnapped. And how long it had been since Heart had last slept; they were searching day and night.

Her feet ached, her wings were sore, and her tail dragged on the ground, the heart on the tip of it rubbed raw from the friction. They were all covered in scratches from the brambles.

“We have to keep going,” she said, her eyes heavy with exhaustion. “We have to find him. We must be close. We’ve come too far not to be.”

“Heart, you need to rest. You’re killing yourself, searching like this without rest,” Spade said to her, worry clear in his tone. “We’ll find him, don’t worry. But you —”

“Oh, give it a rest, Spade,” Club said, growing annoyed with his older brother’s concern and his big sister’s relentless searching. “She isn’t going to listen to you. She’s too stubborn, and determined to find the little brat,” he drawled, the club on his tail swaying lazily.

“Club!” Spade exclaimed, the spade on his tail flicking in anger. “How could you say that? Heart is the only one who’s always been there for us, even carrying us on her back as we sleep. We need to help her. And besides, don’t you care what happens to Diamond?”

“Of course I do,” Club growled. “I’m aware of the fact that we wouldn’t be here today if it wasn’t for Heart’s good nature. All I’m saying is that she shouldn’t have to strain herself like this for his sake.”

Heart turned to look at them, guilt, sadness, and love reflected on her face. “I’m sorry for worrying you two. But I won’t be able to sleep at night until I know he’s safe; until I know we’re all safe,” she said.

Club and Spade looked down, and Heart took a moment to admire their horns. Club’s were at the side of his head and curved down, while Spade’s were the same except that they curved up. Heart reached up to feel hers, tracing their long shape that went from the top of her head and curved up and over to the back. All their horns were sharp. She remembered the shape of Diamond’s horns, sprouting from the side of his head, kind of like Club’s, and how they curl like a pig’s tail. She missed him horribly. She wished she had been more observant the day of the raid, wished she’d paid more attention to the safety of her siblings than the destruction of the village.

\------------

It was the next day. They heard it. Spade and Club had managed to convince Heart to get some sleep the night before, so maybe her senses were more alert and that’s why she could now hear the familiar chortle of a child’s laughter, and smell a familiar scent on the wind mixed with something else that brought back that deep ache in her heart — the ache for a complete family.

“Club, Spade, over here, hurry!” she called over her shoulder, already running in the direction her senses led her to, where she _knew_ her youngest brother _had_ to be.

They ran through the forest at a breakneck pace, before bursting out into a clearing with a small cottage, where, in the middle of the rose garden, stood an unharmed Diamond. Heart burst out into tears of joy as she ran to him, embracing him in a tight hug, Spade and Club joining soon after.

“Thank the stars you’re safe! I was so worried and scared. I promise to never let you go again!” she said, sobbing happily into Diamond’s shoulder. Spade and Club following suit.

“I’m so happy to see you again! I missed all of you so, so much,” Diamond said, joy in his eyes and the diamond on the tip of his tail waved happily with his excitement. “Grandpa Star said not to worry, that you would find this place, but I couldn’t help it! I barely slept, wondering if you all were okay.”

“Grandpa Star?” they asked in unison.

“Heart? Spade? Club? Is that you?” said a voice that Heart recognized as the old Daemon from under their tree, the one who had taken Diamond from them.

“How dare you take my brother from me,” she said, glaring at this stranger, her brother’s kidnapper.

“I’m sorry, Heart,” he said, a somber look of compassion on his face as he gazed at her, a smile on his lips and melancholy in his eyes. “I tried to find you three before I left the raid, but you hid very well; it was probably for the best, really. It was hard enough to leave the horde safely with just Diamond. I knew you would find this place. You’re a lot like your parents. Just as stubborn and determined as your Mother and as attuned to your senses as your Father.”

Heart’s anger left her as soon as it had come, replaced with confusion and hope. “My parents?” she asked. “Are… are you really our grandfather?” Tears prickled her eyes, making her vision a little blurry.

“No way.” “Is he for real?” she heard Spade and Club say behind her, disbelief clear in their voices.

“Yes, children. Your parents’ names were Sphere and Cube, and my name is Star,” Star said.

Heart gasped. She remembered those names from a time she could barely recall, when Diamond was born twenty-five years ago. The memory, though, was obscured with ash and smoke, the cries of her siblings and parents, the uncertain safety of their grandparents, the harsh feel of the bare ground against her tender, bare feet. The ache in her chest grew stronger yet lighter at the same time.

“You’re telling the truth then? You’re really our grandfather?” she said, trying hard not to full-on cry.

“Yes,” he answered, smiling at all of them.

Heart heard Spade and Club sob behind her, and when she looked at them, they had bright smiles on their faces, eyes brimming with tears. Diamond took Heart by the hand and smiled up at her. She returned it with a bright one of her own. When was the last time they smiled in true happiness like this? She couldn’t remember.

The youngest led his older siblings through the roses and up the stairs to the cottage. As they reached their grandfather, they were engulfed by his large arms and soft wings in a gentle hug as all of them cried happily, celebrating the reunion of their family.


End file.
